


and my cuts have healed with time

by brookethenerd



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 01:57:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11003592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brookethenerd/pseuds/brookethenerd
Summary: andreil au in which andrew gets more okay with being close to neil (aka sharing a bed and stealing the covers)





	and my cuts have healed with time

It’s taken some time for Andrew to start finding comfort in Neil’s company. In the beginning, his feelings were a panicked need, an incessant ache to be around him.

But now, he simply likes being with him. He likes hearing him breathe and feeling the way he shifts against the mattress and just being close to him. Neil doesn’t push, never tries to squeeze up next to him, never does anything but push some of the covers over when Andrew steps into the room and climbs into the bed.

Andrew has nightmares, ones that scrape the skin from his body and tear him apart from the inside, just like Drake did. And for a long time, until he met Neil, there was nothing to do but let them ravage him.

It started slow, with Andrew coming into Neil’s room and curling up on the chair in the corner of the room. Then he moved to the bed, putting as much distance as possible between him and Neil as possible.

But things have gotten easier. A brush of skin or a bump of feet isn’t enough to turn his skin to ice any more; not if the person it belongs to is Neil.

Tonight, he and Neil are closer than usual. Neil is fast asleep beside him, his closet limb half a foot from Andrew.

This proximity doesn’t scare him or make him uneasy. He’s comfortable. Content. For someone like Andrew Minyard, content and comfortable isn’t easy to come by.

Neil shifts in his sleep, and rolls to face Andrew. He slides a hand across the mattress towards Andrew, whose gaze falls to the outstretched fingers. He doesn’t make a move to stop them, instead letting Neil bump him slightly, lips pursed.

“Stop hoggin’ the covers.” Neil murmurs.

In response, Andrew grabs his covers and yanks them off Neil completely. Neil’s eyes snap open, something like fear flashing through them; it’s that flash that almost makes Andrew feel bad. If Andrew felt things normally, he would feel bad. But he is who he is, so what he feels is a prick, barely there, but present nonetheless.

Neil settles the minute his eyes land on Andrew, and he lets out a soft groan, one that makes Andrew’s stomach tighten. He sits up, about to reach over Andrew for the covers before he realizes and stops.

As always, the hesitation and reluctance to touch a person who doesn’t want to be touched are noticed and appreciated. As his own version of a thank you, Andrew pulls the covers back over them, and Neil slides back onto his side, tugging the covers up over the two of them.

Neil holds Andrew’s eyes; anyone else would break beneath the stare. Key words: anyone else.

“We need a bigger blanket,” Neil says after a moment. Andrew turns onto his back, gaze sliding to the ceiling.

Instead of replying, he reaches out and grabs Neil by the arm, tugging him closer.

Neil braces himself on the mattress, the sudden content, especially from Andrew, shocking. His brows furrow, his every emotion playing on his face.

But when Andrew doesn’t push him away, he lays back down, his eyes on Andrew, though Andrew pretends not to notice.

They’re close now. Neil’s knees are against Andrew’s thighs, his chest inches from Andrew’s shoulder. If Neil shifted an inch they’d be pressed together.

“Is this okay?” Neil asks, though Neil knows by now that Andrew wouldn’t be letting it happen if it wasn’t.

“97%,” Andrew retorts; Neil understands that the reason for the jump isn’t the close proximity, but that Neil is talking about it.

Neil’s lips pull thin, but he lets it go quickly, and closes his eyes.

“Night,” Neil says. Andrew doesn’t say anything back. Instead, he shifts the extra inch.

And here, in this tiny dorm room in this tiny bed, is a place neither Drake nor the Ravens nor either of their pasts can reach them.

After Drake, Andrew came to the understanding that he had nothing left to give. But maybe he was wrong.

As for Neil, he doesn’t mind that it’s taking so much time for Andrew to become okay with _them_. Because loving Andrew Minyard is a waiting game, and it’s one that Neil Josten doesn’t mind playing.


End file.
